Spain (State of)

Exciting news! Piecing it Together, the WRI's Feminism and Nonviolence Study group's extraordinary pamphlet of 1983 has just been published in Catalan by the Institut Català Internacional per la Pau.

Activists in Madrid have taken action against Spain's biggest arms fair, with large demonstrations accompanied by nonviolent direct action, which saw activists covering themselves in red paint and unfurling banners at the entrance to the HOMESEC arms fair, in Madrid.

Victoria Giraldo Osorio

In Spain, members of MOC Valencia occupied the Russian consulate, hanging banners and dropping rubble in the floor, in protest at the ongoing bombardment of the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo. The activists were dressed in white overalls and helmets, in solidarity with the rescue teams in the city. The action was supported by activists outside, where more rubble was dumped.

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Ferrovial is a Spanish multinational company, with a broad range of interests - they are involved in the construction of the Gugenheim Museum in Bilbao, the construction of the M3 motorway in Ireland, and manage toll roads across Europe. Ferrovial owns 90% of the company Broadspectrum, which runs Australia's offshore immigration detention centres in Papua New Guinea.

By Cristóbal Orellana González (from the Red Antimilitarista y Noviolenta de Andalucía)

In 2013, Ecologistas en Acción de Cádiz wrote an open letter to the central government titled “Environmental, health and safety risk to the civil population bordering the Naval Station Rota in Cádiz”. The letter outlined 19 different environmental concerns the group had about the base, which is a Spanish naval base fully funded by the USA on the south coast of Spain. The base houses US Navy and Marine Corps military personnel.

REPRESSIVE RESPONSE AGAINST ANTI-MILITARIST MOC ACTIVISTS FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCEUP TO 12.000 EUROS  FINE AND THE POSSIBILITY OF SEVERAL YEARS JAIL SENTENCE FOR  BLOCKADE IN THE PORT OF SAGUNTO AGAINST NATO MANEUVERS. 

The group of antimilitarists that paralyzed the transport of armoured vehicles to the NATO “Trident Juncture“ manoeuvres last October face accusations of “serious disobedience”, “breach of the peace”, and fines for “intrusion". 

Activists in Spain, outside the Juan de Garay military barracks in Bilbao

A series of events on nonviolence is running throughout January in Sevilla, state of Spain. The event this evening will launch the 'Manual para Campañas Noviolentas' – the Spanish edition of the Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns. On Saturday, attend the Workshop Design of Nonviolent Campaigns, led by former WRI staff member Andreas Speck. Register here.

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Los objetores fiscales en España han apoyado el programa de noviolencia de la Internacional de  Resistentes a la Guerra reuniendo el dinero de sus contribuciones fiscales que de otro modo habrían sido entregadas al ejército español. Decenas de activistas de la región de Bilbao (España) recaudaron fondos, y en toda España cientos de activistas del MOC-AA se opusieron a la militarización de sus impuestos negándose a pagar miles de euros. 

 

Tax resisters in Spain have supported the Nonviolence Programme at War Resisters' International, by pooling the money from their tax contributions that would otherwise have been given to the Spanish military.

Return to Conscientious Objection: A Practical Companion for Movements

Alternativa Anitmilitarista Movimiento Objeción de Conciencia (AA.MOC or Anitmilitarist Alternative Conscientious Objection Movement) are a Spanish movement which arose out of the Spanish experience of conscription and resistance in the form of Insumisión, loosely translateable as insubordination or disobedience.  Members have written about the transition to the post-conscription era in Spain, and the challenges faced by antimilitarists in this transition.

'The past can't be accessed by merely remembering: it must be constructed, and this is a collective task.  Our interpretations of the events through which we live will construct their history.'

Ana M. Fernández 

For Alternativa Antimilitarista.MOC (AA.MOC), writing about the terrain which opened up before us after conscription means analysing the Spanish Insumisión campaign – the campaign of civil disobedience and total objection to military service – and stirring up many diverse experiences, emotions, sorrows and joys.